But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

• Psalm 52:8

May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

• Psalm 61:7

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.

• Ecclesiastes 9:1

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

• Hosea 11:1

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

• Jonah 2:8

Here is another missing word quiz that spells out an eleventh Bible verse.  This time I tried to make it straightforward, in that the answers to the questions are in the same order as the words in the mystery verse.

The mystery verse is twelve words long.  Thus, questions 2 and 4 have two-word answers.  They are the same two words.  And in this mystery verse, there are two other words that appear twice, just not consecutively.

The questions are in the order of the mystery verse, and all questions come from the four Gospels.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that ___ believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
2	Every tree that ___ ___ bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (2 missing words)
3	And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I ___; with you I am well pleased.”
4	Whoever ___ ___take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (2 missing words)
5	“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you ___ I had to be in my Father’s house?”
6	For no word from ___will ever fail.”
7	As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, ___ the harvest has come.”
8	You have let go of the commands of ___ and are holding on to human traditions.”
9	Jesus answered, “It ___ said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
10	By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you ___ one another.”.

People constantly try to “do the right thing.”

Doing the right thing, or anything, is not what brings you to Jesus.  But we search the Scriptures for that “practical” approach to knowing that we are who we say we are.

There are things that Jesus said and things in the epistles that point to our assurance of salvation.

But really, it is all about where our heart lies.

When our heart is committed to taking up our cross and following Jesus, then we know that we are saved.

Satan wants to cast that net of doubt upon us.  He makes us feel guilty for a sin that we have confessed and God has forgiven.  Our gifts of the Spirit or our track record in witnessing to others may not be what we think it should be, but God is the judge of that too.

Let us not doubt.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that ___ believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.	John 3:16
2	Every tree that ___ ___ bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (2 missing words)	Matthew 7:19
3	And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I ___; with you I am well pleased.”	Mark 1:11
4	Whoever ___ ___take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (2 missing words)	Matthew 10:38
5	“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you ___ I had to be in my Father’s house?”	Luke 2:49
6	For no word from ___will ever fail.”	Luke 1:37
7	As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, ___ the harvest has come.”	Mark 4:29
8	You have let go of the commands of ___ and are holding on to human traditions.”	Mark 7:8
9	Jesus answered, “It ___ said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”	Luke 4:12
10	By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you ___ one another.”.	John 13:35

But once we know that our salvation is secure, are we living the Christian life to the fullest?

Probably not.  Our attention span is too short.  There are temptations at every corner.

But do not get upset with that.  Satan would not spend time tempting us and distracting us if we did not have potential.

What we must do is to put that potential into action.

In engineering, we look at potential energy and kinetic energy.

Potential energy is the big snowball at the top of the hill.  Kinetic energy is that snowball rolling down the hill.  The difference in the two is getting the snowball to start rolling.

We can do it on our own power, but that does not last long.

Or we can pray and have faith that God will be there, providing the push that we need.

I don’t know how many times lately that I have found the energy that I did not know that I had.  God provides when we keep our eyes on Jesus and trust Him.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that ___ believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.	John 3:16	Whoever
2	Every tree that ___ ___ bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (2 missing words)	Matthew 7:19	Does not
3	And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I ___; with you I am well pleased.”	Mark 1:11	love
4	Whoever ___ ___take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (2 missing words)	Matthew 10:38	Does not
5	“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you ___ I had to be in my Father’s house?”	Luke 2:49	Know
6	For no word from ___will ever fail.”	Luke 1:37	God
7	As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, ___ the harvest has come.”	Mark 4:29	Because
8	You have let go of the commands of ___ and are holding on to human traditions.”	Mark 7:8	God
9	Jesus answered, “It ___ said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”	Luke 4:12	is
10	By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you ___ one another.”.	John 13:35	Love

The mystery verse is “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8).

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here are Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham singing Love of God.

Here is Chris Tomlin with Nobody Loves Me Like You Do.

Here is Zach Williams singing Jesus Loves.

God loves the sinner, but He makes each of a new creation.  We may mess up, but we do not like that part of us.  We will not be perfect until we are with Him in Heaven, but our focus on earth should be to love one another in the manner God intends.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.